This application pertains to the art of custom high speed packaging. The invention finds particular application in connection with custom packaging of preprinted advertising products with newspapers and will be described with particular reference thereto. It is to be appreciated, however, that the invention finds broader application in the custom packaging of other advertising materials, distribution materials, telephone books, directories, catalogues, and the like.
Heretofore, various residential and commercial distribution systems have coexisted and provided overlapping services. Commonly, one or more newspapers, telephone directories, advertising fliers, and the like have been distributed in the same geographic area by private distribution systems. Further, mail order catalogues, advertising brochures, sample products, various materials addressed to "resident", and the like are delivered in the same geographic areas by the U.S. Postal Service.
Newspapers and magazines have begun to customize their advertising, inserts, and sections based on geographic region. Commonly, larger newspapers will publish three or four regional additions which are primarily the same, except each includes a regional news section, regional advertising inserts and the like directed toward one region of its distribution area. An apparatus for processing such newspapers is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,168,828, issued Sept. 25, 1975 to James A. McLear. One or more of the signatures for nationally published magazines is commonly printed with advertising directed toward a specific geographic region. Based on the zip code or other information concerning the subscriber, the appropriate signatures, advertising inserts, subscription renewal post cards, and the like are assembled and bound into the magazine. Typical systems for custom assembling magazines are illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,022,455 issued May 1977 to John Newsome et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,819,173 issued June 1974 to Frederick Anderson et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 3,608,888 issued September 1971 to McCaine et al.
The prior art regional customizing systems for newspapers and magazines have been limited to fairly large geographic divisions and other broad demographic divisions.
The present invention contemplates an apparatus for producing packages of selected advertising and other printed materials based on individual household demographic information.